It’s been just over a week since I last shared something with you, (although it feels like it’s been much longer) but personally I’ve had quite an eventful couple of weeks. Thankfully you’ll be pleased to hear I have managed to keep up with my bible reading plan. I did miss one or two days along the way but I doubled up and caught right back up to where I’m supposed to be.

Recently I read 2 Peter 1 and I stumbled across a passage that has a recipe for being a Christian fruitful in the knowledge of Christ.

5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; 6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1:5-7‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Faith

This shows us that having faith is a basic element of Christianity and therefore should be the starting point for anyone who considers themselves to be a Christian. What is faith? Faith can be defined as complete trust or confidence in someone or something, or a strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof. However, my favourite definition of faith is:

11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭11:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

As a Christian if you don’t have faith what do you have?

Virtue

To take your Christianity to the next level you need to add virtue. What is virtue? Well virtue can be defined as behaviour or a quality that is considered to be morally good. That’s pretty straightforward right? A Christian should have good morals.

Knowledge

The next step is adding knowledge. Well, as this is with regards to the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge I’m speaking of here isn’t general knowledge or the type that is typically taught in schools or colleges, but the type of knowledge that can be obtained by searching the scriptures, from preaching or from spending time in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Temperance

Once you have knowledge the next thing that’s required is temperance. What is temperance? Another way of saying temperance is to say self-control. Self-control is needed because once you have the theory which is the knowledge, you need the temperance or the self-control in order to be able to put what you know into practice.

Patience

To go even higher a person needs patience. Patience isn’t just about being able to wait but patience is defined as the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. You need patience as a Christian because some times you have to endure problems and suffering and maintain your self-control.

Godliness

Further to this a Christian needs to display godliness. When I first encountered this term ‘godliness‘ I completely misunderstood it. I assumed it referred to being like God. However, with the use of my trusted concordance I discovered that what it is actually referring to is piety. Which is about being devoted to God; this is where you’re living in the will of God. Simply put, a godly person is a person who does God’s business.

Brotherly kindness

At this point you’re probably thinking what more could a person possibly add to make themselves a better Christian? However, there’s an icing on this Christian fruit cake and that’s brotherly kindness or brotherly love. This is the general care and affection that one has for their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Charity

If there’s icing, there’s got to be a cherry on top, and the cherry is charity. Charity, also known as love or agape love is an unconditional type of love that serves regardless of circumstances.

I’m sure we could all do more to become better christians and Peter has given us a few areas for us to improve here. I pray that we are able to embrace these characteristics and grow as Christians, and may God bless us as we do so.

Until the next time may the grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Amen!

…Anybody? I can’t be the only one, comment if you do, I know I didn’t make it up.

Those of us that were present in Sunday school, it’s funny how this wisdom was given to us, even with a catchy song so we didn’t forget it. However, assuming that a lot of you are like me, we didn’t implement this instruction in our lives.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, I wonder how my life would have been different and what situations I would have been able to avoid.

But why do I need to read the Bible? I know enough scriptures off by heart
to get by...Like John 3:16!

Say what?! …Excuse me?! …Bruh?!!!!

Look, I know at times reading the Bible can be long winded and quite boring. I’ve been reading Jeremiah over the last week and I am telling you that if I wasn’t only reading one chapter a day I would have given up by now (or skipped it). It’s literally reading a will, telling us who in tribes of Israel inherits what land and the boundaries of that land. Considering I don’t know who these people are or where the places mentioned are it’s not providing me with much information other than there were a lot of them and that it must have been a long winded process. I digress, but what I can say is that there is another chapter 3 and verse 16 that you need to take note of:

16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realise what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT)

📢 📢 📢 📢 📢 📢

🔑 This version of the scripture is quite self explanatory in telling us what the benefit of the reading the Bible is. However, if you don’t read the Bible, you obviously won’t be able work out what is true or what may be wrong with your life. With a lot of things, if you don’t have an instruction manual there is no way that you could possibly know the correct way to do certain things. So the bible is like an instruction manual for our lives.🔑

📢 📢 📢 📢 📢 📢

Instruction

In Deuteronomy an instruction is given for kings regarding the word. It says:

18And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book out of that which is before the priests the Levites:

19And it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:

20That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand, or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Deuteronomy 17:18-20

This instruction is also useful for us as it shows that reading the the Bible daily will teach us to give reverence to God. It also tells us the more often we read the scriptures the more likely we are to stay on the straight and narrow. Which makes sense I guess, as it’s basically reading the instruction as you go along life.

Promise

The Bible also contains many prophecies, promises and decrees that can have a positive effect on our lives. Isaiah tells us to search the scriptures for these promises so that we know what God can and will do for us.

16Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

Isaian 34:16

If we don’t read the Bible we won’t know all of what God can do for us. It’s almost like having a tool that has multiple functions. Even if you may know the main functions of the tool, if you read the manual you may discover that it has other functions that you were unaware of that can help you with other tasks.

Affirmation

Going back to my song, it says that you should read your Bible and pray everyday if you want to grow. If you are new to the faith, reading the Bible will help to confirm you in the faith, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Jesus actually states that reading the scriptures is not what gives you eternal life as the scriptures point to Him, and is through Christ that we are able to obtain eternal life.

39“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!

John 5:39 (NLT)

That being said you wouldn’t know this without reading the Bible. When Paul and Silas went to preach the gospel in a place called Berea, the people there received the word well and the reason why they were able to do so is because not only did they listen to the preaching, they read the scriptures daily themselves to confirm what was being preached to them was true.

11These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

12Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.

Acts 17:11

Therefore, when we are being preached to, we must also read our Bibles to confirm the truth in what we are being taught. Otherwise we run the risk of falling foul of a cult leader who may use his (or her) own rules and doctrines and try to present them as being a part of Christianity.

Hope

I didn’t plan on writing too much today, I just wanted to encourage us to read more and to read our Bible more. So I’m going to leave us with one more scripture that tells of the hope we have through the Bible.

4Such things were written in the Scriptures long ago to teach us. And the Scriptures give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.

Romans 15:4 (NLT)

If you have found encouragement through reading this or have any comments or suggestions please feel free to get in touch, like, comment & subscribe. As always, until the next time may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

So I’ve been telling myself for a long time that I’m going to get back online and into the social media scene, make a website or start a blog for some time now. However, it just hasn’t seemed to really work for me so far. I haven’t really had a subject or content that I have a passion about or that I have been inspired to keep up.

After a few false starts, I sought inspiration and came up with the idea for this blog. In order to make sure I make this venture successful I decided to consult a friend of mine (who claims to be a blogger…hopefully you’ll hear from her soon as she’s also agreed to contribute to this blog) and now I think I’m finally ready to present…

Entheos or ἔνθεος

So let’s now move on to the etymology (origin of the word): Well its Ancient Greek from the root words “En” or “ἔν” which means “in” and “θεός” or “theós” which means “god”…so obviously it means in god! (well, not quite)

…now I’ll define it, what does ἔνθεος ‎(éntheos) actually mean? It means having a god in one; possessed or inspired by a god.

If it hasn’t dawned on you by now, what I’m saying to you is, this blog is inspired by God.

Okay Mr Fancy Greek Title what’s your blog about?

Well that’s a very good question Italic Question Asker! This blog is to be a showcase of whatever God inspires me to share, so it could be a word that I feel God has laid on my heart to share, my quiet times, social commentary as well as bits and pieces of my journey as a Christian. I also fancy myself as a bit of a photographer so I also want to try and add a lot of images that I’ve taken; both edited and unedited.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to you being a part of this journey with me.